‘From Canon to Covid’: Honouring a legacy
To celebrate the outstanding contributions of Prof GJV Prasad to the field of English literary studies, a festschrift has been dedicated to him on the occasion of his retirement from the Centre for English Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in November 2020. This book collates original contributions from Prof Prasad’s friends, colleagues and former students whose intellectual trajectories have been shaped by his scholarship.
A comprehensive overview of the state of research on the evolution of English literary studies in India, the book maps out the contours of the “contested” as well as “effervescent” area of this discipline and its change from a study entrenched in British literary traditions to one that now encompasses intersectionality, caste, multilingualism, vernacular literatures, pedagogy, cultural theory, performance studies, and the literary Global South.
The essays celebrating Prof Prasad’s four-decade-long teaching career at JNU stand as a testament to his wide-ranging academic interests and lasting contributions as a teacher, researcher, administrator, creative writer, translator, literary critic and intellectual. After a brief perusal of this collection, one realises that its alliterative title, ‘From Canon to Covid: Transforming English Literary Studies in India’, is delightfully significant. It reflects the paradigm shift brought about by the pandemic, which has disrupted conventional ways of understanding the world and necessitated a re-evaluation of its structures and limitations.
In her book ‘What World Is This?: A Pandemic Phenomenology’ (2022), Judith Butler suggests “that something about the pandemic makes us reconsider the world as an object of scrutiny, register it as a cause for alarm, mark the fact that this present version of the world was not anticipated, and see it as suddenly bearing a new kind of opacity and imposing a new set of constraints”. This festschrift shows a similar shift in the discipline of English literary studies in India in recent years, marking a significant redefinition of the scope of English literary scholarship and prompting a reconfiguration of the canon. This shift has expanded its boundaries to include a wider range of socio-linguistic contexts, voices and perspectives. The volume employs the pandemic as a critical lens to examine the historical evolution of literary scholarship in India, while addressing its challenges and envisioning its future.
The introduction offers a comprehensive survey of English literary studies in India. This is followed by a compelling opening chapter by Prof Mohd Asaduddin, which provides a reconnaissance of the history of Indian literature(s), its growth and challenges, and then some areas of erasures, silences, and inadequate representation within the broader historical narratives of diverse literary traditions in India.
The collection consists of 17 essays, organised into five thematic sections, each addressing a critical dimension of English literary studies in India: the current state of the discipline in India; drama, poetry, translation and transcreation; fiction, language and context. The essays, both individually and collectively, align with Prof Prasad’s long-standing advocacy for diversifying English Studies and integrating indigenous literatures. They reflect his vision of grounding English literary studies within India’s socio-cultural and linguistic landscape.
While the anthology celebrates the strides made in transforming English literary studies in India, it also prompts critical reflections on the challenges that lie ahead. The essays engage with the urgent questions concerning the need for continuous curriculum reform, the complexities of decolonising the syllabus, and the imperative of engaging with emerging literary forms. By foregrounding these issues, the book urges scholars and educators to remain vigilant and proactive in navigating the evolving literary and academic landscape.
This festschrift stands as a testament to Prof Prasad’s unwavering mentorship and invaluable contributions to English Studies. This timely collection will serve as an essential resource for researchers and academics in English Studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, translation studies, postcolonial studies, and critical theory.
And yet, one enduring mystery remains — how Prof Prasad manages to seamlessly juggle multiple roles, navigating them with remarkable ease.
— The writer is professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia (Central) University
Book Review